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Are You Ready for a Brave New World?

Home, home—a few small rooms, stiflingly over-inhabited by a man, by a periodically teeming woman, by a rabble of boys and girls of all ages. No air, no space, an understerilized prison; darkness, disease and smells.

The opening sentence is a picturesque explanation from a ruler of a country in which the mass does not even understand or feel how it is to live with their parents. The babies are given to a governmental institution since they are born, to be educated, nurtured, and fostered in a uniformly harmonious fashion, through hypnopaedia performed when the kids are asleep, daily teachings, and joyous tune with lyrics that are repeated over and over again.

Humans are classified in different castes, start from the highest one—Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Truth to be told, the lower castes are even produced from a Bokanovsky process, where the eggs are manipulated up to ninety-six ready to be grown into full adults. Ninety six twins are on the serve to ensure the Society’s perfect conditioned life.

There is no more history. The museums are all abolished. No bible no Shakespeare. Peace is one value upheld: everyone understands their place and responsibilities, no tantrums no protests, there is only smooth process. When you have stress or disappointment, there is always a soma to help. That little pill will bring you to a wonderful world of yours, magical. You will forget your bad experiences. You don’t have to worry about romance since everyone belongs to everyone else. Infidelity is acceptable—even an obligation.

Is this real?

It can be. This future prediction of what civilization is moving forward to is blatantly explored in a 1932’s novel written by Aldous Huxley, one controversial novel then and mind intriguing one now. A pitch of anarchy and violence is not even once stated, but instead a smooth propaganda that unconsciously rules the Society through use of comfortable living. There is no more art, no more religion, no more science unless the one highly controlled by the government bodies.

It is seemingly an escapable horror once the gong of apocalypse rings, giving a code that the whole process of the current world destruction begins. We may imagine how a star or a planet crushes the magnificent earth, causes an irreparable damage that brings the world population to extinction. We may play a scenario of antichrist, where everything is chaotic, people are murdered, and access to welfare is diminished.

Humans instinctively increase their defense mechanism whenever something bad approaches them. We are used to respond reactively towards danger, we switch our alert mode on reading all sorts of violence and destruction. But what happens when something harmless is introduced to us? It goes by under our radar without us realizing it, just like what the Brave New World portrays. A society that is controlled by drugs, by shining predicament of beautiful houses and cars, by heartwarming messages from the Sunday’s preaches. Slowly but surely, the world we live in become so densely populated, ruled by several Big Hands. Have you ever thought that propaganda and mind trick can also be infused through positive things? Are we just puppets who play gracefully in the candy land and later will be shaped easily towards what the Big Hands want?

The apocalypse may or may not draw near, but the Brave New World has shown its path. Will our earth come to an end, or more importantly, will our free mind shut down?